Real?
by Ageless Kunoichi
Summary: Naruto rescues Sasuke and they both are changed people: whether it's better or worse. Can Sasuke let him in after what has happened with others he loved? Rated this way for future chapters.
1. Prolouge

Why were there cuts on my wrists? My eyes adjusted to the darkness, and I barely knew that a laugh escape me until it echoed off the walls around me. Darkness…What a familiar word it was! It made me want to laugh again, only louder. Wetness flowed down my cheek with each miniscule and stupid thought that passed through me.

Why was I even here? The pain was so surreal and so different. It was so different from the numbness I had learned to enjoy feeling from dawn till dusk. When feeling actually coursed into my veins, it made me inhale so sharply. Almost gasping, I hated the new feeling and begged my subconscious to rid me of this reminder that I was alive. The cold on my body was no longer there, replaced by warmth. It was so…inviting – so different from what I had fallen a victim to taking part to.

My brother's cold body was forever burned into my skull, no matter if my eyesight dies away before my heart stopped. For all I know, the eyes lived longer than I had. The words he told me were a permanent bruise to the face: _Sorry Sasuke, this is it._ His smile was so full of the life that was seeping from him faster than his blood – _my _blood. Madara's words were so chilling because, though the part was so tiny and so iced-over, somewhere deep down in my brain actually wanted to believe him. What part of me, limb or mind, could deny that my Nii-san was great? What bone didn't ache for his presence to soothe and comfort me like the old days?

I couldn't feel my breathing, or anything for that matter. The warmth was taking over any thought I had. It was so addicting now, and I felt like I was waking up from a coma. It felt like numbness didn't even exist anymore, even in my vocabulary. The inhalation and exhalation that bodies do automatically didn't have a giant weight hovering over it, feeling like an anvil on my chest. My heartbeat was so loud I heard it in my ears, or was I just so unaware of it before? I moved my arms around, twisting them and letting my hands open and close to their delight. Oh, delight! It almost felt human to want that word! I _liked_ it!

With the twists, I definitely felt scabs twitch to break, pain followed in immense values. Had I just been so blind to pain before? It was a good possibility. My eyelids fell and rose again and again, trying to see my surroundings. The cause of some positivity had to be here. I felt the feeling swell, and swell. It was energetic, almost, and moving closer and closer. The addiction grew, and as soon as I knew there could be more of it, I _had_ to get it. Please, come closer. By now, I could almost make out the shape of that energy, place _colors_ to it: orange and yellow, and taller than me by a good few centimeters. Why should it feel so familiar? Then again, it had changed from my memory.

My ears pricked as I heard footsteps so close that I should have been able to see shoes. They were walking at a bright pace, so droll and hopeful. My eyes wouldn't care to adjust any further, but I didn't need vision now. The wind from an opened door hit me in the face and my hair blew slightly. The footsteps stopped, and I wanted to keep my concern bottled up as best as I could. My breathing never sounded so loud.

I heard a switch click, and everything was illuminated like my body now. For a second, the brightness blinded me. When I adjusted, I saw the source of my energy and the sounds. Blonde hair was so shaggy and untidy down to above deep sky eyes. Pink lips against a tan face twitched in shock. Scars ran down their cheeks and almost outdid the little whisker-like markings. Every aspect should have felt familiar and missed, but I couldn't name it. Whatever their calloused hands had been carrying shattered to the floor. My eyes watched only the face, the bright face that couldn't stop smiling.

"Sa…su…ke," the rough and almost shaky voice said in pure disbelief. "You're up." Eyes lit like flames and then I saw it.


	2. Chapter 1

This was not the Naruto I remembered. He had so many scars now, and his eyes lacked that childlike sense I had seen only less than a year ago. A strange feeling overwhelmed me, begging me to run. It couldn't be Naruto. I had to be dead and this was _not_ my Naruto.

_My_…Naruto?

"Sasuke, you're…are you feeling alright?" The man asked. If he was Naruto, then Naruto had grown into a man that _I didn't like._ He was different, and…_where was _my_ Naruto at? _He came over to me, bringing forth with him his changed face – gaunt and letting life drain into it slowly, split lips healing and eyes that weren't as bright as I had thought. His body was muscular and toned, with hands scarred and rough as they went to my face.

I cringed and backed away, unable to let the calloused and unrecognizable hands near me. His face twisted up, tilting slightly. The hands I didn't know went down to his lap as I tried to cover more of myself. I was left alone in a room with a blonde, blue-eyed stranger. Breaths came from me, shortened and forced. Something fell down my cheek as I worried that _my_ Naruto was all a dream. He could have been, for all I knew.

"It's me, Sasuke," he whispered hoarsely. The voice was deep and so unlike the boy I wanted to match it to. Maybe it wasn't him at all, since I couldn't recognize him at all. "It's me, Naruto. You remember me, right?"

Almost pained, I turned and looked to the man with blurred vision. Had sharingan messed my vision up so much? Blinking, the blurs went away and I stared impossibly at the man again. I felt my fists clench as I held the sheets tighter and higher. A noise echoed in the quiet room – a scared and sad whimper. My lips twitched in an almost familiar way. "I remember Naruto," I said honestly, turning and sighing.

The blonde hair was still disheveled and as long as when I first opened my eyes to this new one. Blue eyes still had this mature tint that worried me. Had he changed severely? Was he no longer the dobe I longed for? His lips and chin…none of that seemed as familiar as it should have, I noted sadly. A gasp escaped my chest quicker than I could realize one had wanted to appear. Or maybe _he_ gasped. Hell, I wouldn't know.

"Sasuke," he whispered, leaning closer. Locks of hair were swept to the side so I could clearly see his eyes. Bags started to show themselves. Deep bags under his eyes tried to be obscured by hair. The shadows they cast couldn't ever be forgotten. Almost zombie-like, he scooted closer. At this point, if Naruto wasn't here, why was I? "Sasuke, you have to remember."

I shook my head, bringing my knees to my chest with absolute pain. Never letting it show, I let out a shaky exhale instead and lay my cheek down on my bent leg. "No," I forced out of my chest. "It's not you," my voice sounded so unsure, so cold, so…_scared_. Shaking my head over and over, my hair twirled and slapped me in the face. They hit harder than anything, maybe because all I could feel then was so much _pain._

He sighed, breath reaching my skin like wildfire. Just barely, I felt him move around me which caused me to tense. Reaching behind me, I felt his arm shake and heard a click. Once, twice, it clicked. "There you go," he whispered. "You must be in agony." His weight left the bed, and I panicked. Was he going? Where? Is he coming back? Shutting my eyes as tight as I could, breaths came out in little gasps. Another click hastily met my ears, and energy dropped to the floor. When my eyes opened, lights were out. The brightness was gone, and so was the man claiming to be Naruto. I twisted carefully to look around. A blind behind me creaked open slightly. There he was.

In the little amount of light streaming in from the heavens of the outside, I saw _him_. There were his sky-blue eyes, taking my breath away again. I knew that those eyes could never be on another. But why couldn't I have seen them before?

"Don't strain your eyes too much," he whispered, dropping the term we called each other. Had that part of him gone away? He walked over, fading to the darkness again before opening another blind right by my side. The man carefully sat by my legs cautiously. The eyes were so missed. Their playfulness shone through slightly, bringing me in like a trap. "Hmm, the artificial light might be damaging them. I mean, you woke up a day after I took the bandages off." He breathed out my awakening in so much relief. "Can you see me alright?"

I nodded slowly, reaching my hands out to try and cup his face. He looked about half a meter away, but my hands touched his cheeks roughly sooner than I had imagined. My scowl made him laugh. The deep timbre of that laugh was not that of _my_ Naruto's, but puberty had come between this reunion and could explain that. When our skin touched, I did not easily forget each little moment it had before, bringing sparks so bright and powerful that I wanted to scream. Only now, with the added drugs in my system, it seemed stronger instead of diluted like my sense of touch should be.

"Surgery messed with your depth perception, likely," he mused, touching my face and barely stretching his arm. "You'll get that back with some therapy."

I leaned into the touch, totally zoning out on whatever he said. My vision hazed, and my mouth let out a sigh. I felt…safe around him and it was something I had long forgotten. I kind of liked it, and it made me a little wary. Why would a touch do that? Something like pain routed through me again, and I yelped.

"Sasuke?" He asked nervously. "What hurts?" His hand wouldn't reach for the adjuster, and my rational mind couldn't process that. He wanted me to suffer? Pain rushed from my legs to waist to torso to arms and then finally made my head feel so light. "Talk to me." I made the same noise, and he sighed in a bothered tone. "Are you sure it hurts?"

Calming down, I let the sensation come at me again. It was diverse, but so intense. Like a glow to my skin, a cool flame, I felt my chest clasp and something about it felt memorable. "N-no," I whispered. More or less, I liked it. My heart monitor, which I barely paid any attention to, beeped louder and further annoying.

He smiled, and did something so strange I wanted to freak out and push him away. But I didn't, because part of me enjoyed it. His lips pressed to my forehead, warmth against ice, and I melted against the touch. My breathing evened out for once, and my heart rate calmed. "Naruto," I sighed, moving to make his lips stay there.

Naruto backed away, looking at me with those impossible eyes. "Sleep, Sasuke. I'll be here when you wake up."

Just barely, I listened to him before following commands. I was relaxed, for once in a lifetime.


	3. Chapter 2

For once, I realized something so simple, so obscenely obvious.

Rehabilitation sucked.

First, it was walking _with_ the aid of painkillers. It was easy, numb feet my only drawback. I had forgone the railings on the side, and gone for just walking across the room. Turns out, I twisted my ankle without me knowing.

Then, _without_ pain killers; I wondered why the hell they didn't just leave me to die. The light hurt my eyes, and people refused to dim the lights so I could see. My ears were ringing nonstop, too, not that it dealt with painkillers. My wrists were on fire along with my fingers as I grasped the railings. Yes, I _had_ to use it. My legs had needles, proverbial needles, shoved in every little place. With every step, I had to either yelp or wince, the former being more common. Had I broken them? Turning my neck was even torture! Blinking was agony even!

"Easy," Naruto whispered, gently helping me off the bed. We were going to test out my senses. Touch was pretty good, so they said, and taste was. If I was ever to become involved in the ninja ranks, I had to test out the others. Pretty dumb rule, since I really didn't even want to be a ninja. Even after being told this, my dobe still made me go through these little tests.

Sakura had resisted the urge to slap me when I was brought in. Something told me that she was kept far from my food, too. She examined my eyes slowly, burning them with that dreaded light. "Mangekyo?" She asked.

"Eternal," I sighed. When both needed an explanation, I hesitantly gave it. "These are…Itachi's eyes. Mine were failing." I blinked when she was finished blinding me.

She moved onto my hearing test, placing those earphones on my head. With every pitch, every dull noise passing through my head, I pointed and acknowledged each accurately. Apparently, my hearing shouldn't have been as well as it was considering all I had been through. "…did you steal his ears, too?" She muttered quietly. With the smell test, I was oddly confused by it. Well, more or less, I was astounded. Some of these scents were familiar, and I could name each aspect of each. For instance, Naruto smelled of ramen, sweat, and something I had to call determination: this pungent odor that was almost tangy and palpable. It _needed_ to be smelled. Sakura smelled of lilacs, cherry blossoms, latex gloves, and whatever brand of shampoo she used. When she drew closer, I could smell herbs and the drying water from her morning shower.

"No deodorant?" I asked, snorting almost. Apparently, that had been a secret because she gasped.

Put me by a window and I could tell you exactly what Konoha was like. Blindfold me, stop my ears, and scent was all I needed. That is exactly what I had Naruto do each night: put me in front of an open window and cover my ears. I could smell Ichiraku's from here, and slight paper from the books. The Yamanaka flower shop was gorgeous with its daises and tulips and tiny marigolds. I could smell the produce below; ripe tomatoes and vegetables called to me.

What I loved most, though, was how Naruto slept in my room. No not in a chair, but in the bed with me is where he would lie. He wrapped his arms around me when he thought I was sleeping. His breathing was nice and even, his warmth refreshing me, and his smell intoxicating me like a perfume. His hair would intertwine with my own locks, and I never would want to complain. When he slept, his breathing was heavy like a bear hibernating. By how he acted, I could almost picture his mouth slightly ajar and eyes relaxed to no end. His arms would grip my waist if he was distressing, and I would fall asleep so easily.

"Sasuke?" He had whispered when I would usually feign sleep. This night, I wasn't tired. I wanted _more_ practice.

I didn't tense, or show that I was awake. My eyes remained closed and I calm.

His hand brushed his way through my silky onyx locks, calloused fingertips almost invisible to me. The gesture was so soothing and caring and – Kami kill me – _loving _that I almost turned around to embrace the man fully. But I just had to stay there, in a forged sleep trance while he traced my hair over and over. His warm hand caressed my temple, causing me to melt as secretive as I could. Assuming that a little leaning in could be recognized as sleep, I did so: scooting back into his warmth and letting my head fall into a shoulder. Miniscule sighs left me on their own accord. Drowsiness took over me then and I agreed that now sleeping was best.

When I woke up, I was facing him. His arms were around me protectively and subconsciously. His chin was on my head as if I cuddled into him. _Had I? _His breathing was slightly uneven, showing he was awake. A tremble shook through him silently.

"Please be asleep, please be asleep…"


End file.
